Ideas vs. Execution or Ideas & Execution?
I was over at infochachkie reading a great post titled, “Where have all the ideas gone”, when I stumbled upon this quote:
“Ideas are plentiful and cheap. Solid execution is rare and expensive.”
The point of his post is not lost on me, that is - good ideas are not, in fact, gone. We just need to see the world differently in order to understand one when we see it (and have patience as they can take time to unfold fully).
Now I want to come back to this notion that ideas are cheap, but solid execution is rare and expensive because it made me wonder which is more important - a good idea or solid execution (notice I’m adding “good” as an adjective of idea as I think it was missing, although should have been included in the above quote). More on this later.
I think the essence of what is being communicated here is that good ideas can come with what feels like minimal work and commitment. This I agree with, but would argue that although it feels like minimal work, in actuality it is a lot of work to come up with a good idea:
- You have to be committed to understanding a particular situation, movement, business, etc.
- You have to think hard about how the world could be made better.
- You have to be patient in convincing others it’s a good idea (i.e. if I have a good idea, but tell no one, is it really a good idea?)
- You have to see the future different than most everyone else (i.e. be a loner)
Arguably coming up with a good idea is hard, but perhaps for the folks that come up with them it feels easy, which is why execution feels hard. Maybe.
Ok, coming back to the question of whether ideas or execution are more important I’m going to sidestep the question and say that they are of equal importance. And they are both equally hard.
